Take Courage: A Call to Stand Firm in Faith

Is that he is alive.

And because he's alive, our sins can be gone.

We sang that good gospel song that I hadn't sung in a long time.

And they're buried in the depths of the deepest sea.

How many of you are glad for that today?

That's something we can rejoice in and builds our confidence in what we're doing today and worshiping King Jesus and coming to church to hear his truth.

And then we sang a challenging song for all of us.

And I was encouraged by the youth Sunday school this morning.

And it was our theme at camp this past summer.

The teens remember the theme was Take Courage.

And brother Jeremiah spoke.

I was in the guy's class over there on being courageous.

And we sang a song about that.

Did we not?

Stand up, Stand up for Jesus.

Right?

We need to have commitment to stand in.

The confidence in the resurrection and the confidence in our salvation gives us the confidence to stand.

And then we sang Standing on the Promises of God.

We have a lot to be thankful for today.

A lot to firm us up and strengthen us to have more faith, not less, to not fear, but to walk forward and to trust God and to know he hasn't left us alone individually as families and yes, as a body of believers as well.

And I've been encouraged by those songs this morning.

I hope that when you sing that you will always think about what you're singing and not just let it go in one ear and out the other.

It's not just a time filler, it's discipleship.

And so thank you to all the musicians and.

And I was thinking as the lady was singing the lighthouse song, how fitting that was.

I love lighthouses.

How many of you know the song Let the Lower Lights Be Burning?

Right?

So there's a whole story about lighthouses that are manned.

Lighthouse, the main lighthouse.

Jesus Christ.

We are the lower lights.

We are to carry the light of the lighthouse.

Jesus Christ.

And because he's given us the light, we are to bear that light out as lower lights.

That's a challenge to us every single day.

So thank you for the song as well.

And I was asked to also sing before I preach.

I hope that's okay with you.

But I'd like to sing a song that will get to Isaiah 40 and still try to get you out on time.

I promise to try to do that.

I actually saw a skit about that just recently about long winded preachers.

So I can't be a long winded preacher today.

But we'll do our best to get you out on time and I want to encourage you to be back tonight as well.

Be back in the evening service.

I want to preach a message tonight just to tell you in advance that I hope can be an encouragement to you from the testimony in the life of the Apostle Paul.

And the title of the message, I'm going to give it to you in advance, is the Energy to endure.

The Energy to endure.

And what is it that's going to gird us up and strengthen us and give us the energy to continue to move forward faithfully.

And so I hope you'll be back this evening.

Now, just before I preach, I'd like to share a message in song that's entitled His Grace is Greater God's grace is the only way of salvation God's grace is the only way of strengthening our lives God's grace is the only place of satisfaction for our life God's grace is the only way through suffering and hurting and challenging times as well.

But we can trust and depend upon his grace because his grace is greater than all of our sins.

Lift your eyes to a distant hill in another time and place See a cross standing stark and still A reflection of God's grace God's own Son, a sacrifice pure and holy Spotless Lamb and though he paid so great a price Was it enough for a sinner that I am?

His grace is greater his grace is full and free his grace is infinite, reaching even me so freely given for all who will believe God's grace is higher God's grace is deeper his grace is greater than all our sin.

Marvelous infinite matchless grace Freely bestowed on all who believe all who are longing to see his face Will you this moment his grace receive a helpless soul?

I run to him bruised and broken Deep within gentle arms outstretched for me Let me know the love that sets me free his grace is greater.

His.

Grace is full and free his grace is infinite, reaching even me so freely given for all who will receive God's grace is higher God's grace is deeper his grace is greater than all our sin.

Grace that is greater than all our Sarah.

We're looking to the Scriptures today.

In Isaiah 40, Isaiah means Yahweh is salvation.

Isaiah's prophecy is one of the most well known places where we can go to show that God's promises are still being fulfilled.

We can see the the prediction of the Messiah and the prophecy to the people of Israel of Him and specific ways.

Some of the most well known prophecies are there.

We see them of his birth.

We see them of his life.

We see them of, yes, his crucifixion in Isaiah 53, one of the greatest passages that declares what's going to happen to King Jesus because he loves us.

And Isaiah is a wonderful book.

It's a book that the first half brings out the judgment upon the people of God.

God always brings judgment upon sin.

Do we know that today?

And God spoke a lot against the nation of Israel in confrontational ways, in ways of disappointment.

And yet he always fulfills his promises to the people of God when they come back to Him.

And the second part is the grace of God.

The whole second half brings out the promises of God, the comfort that's going to come, the restoration of the people of God.

And where we're looking is right smack in the middle.

It's the beginning of that section.

And in chapter 40 it starts with those words, comfort ye, comfort ye, my people.

How many of you know today we still need the comfort of God?

We still need to walk in, know that he is going to fulfill what he says he will do.

It was John Stott that said this about prophecy and prophetic passages.

Of particular importance is this principle with which I think all of us would agree that the New Testament writers themselves understood that the Old Testament prophecy did not just have a single effect, but usually a trifold effect.

Past, present and future.

The past fulfillment was an immediate or historical fulfillment.

We see that in the life of the people of Israel, the present is an intermediate or a gospel fulfillment of the prophecy of the Messiah.

Praise the Lord for that.

But the future is ultimately an eschatological fulfillment in the new heaven and the new earth.

How many of you looking forward to that?

So we have more of the promises of God than the people that were defined for us that walked in faith in Hebrews chapter 11, who never, never had all the promises fulfilled that we've had fulfilled.

But we have yet unfulfilled promises that are still yet to come.

And that is a reminder to us that this passage of Scripture was not just for the people at that moment, and not just for the people in the early church age moment.

But this is for the people of God still today.

And this passage brings great encouragement.

There's probably no more encouraging passage, in my opinion, in the whole Old Testament than Isaiah 40.

Maybe you're like me, you just love this chapter.

Now, for sake of time, we won't be able to read the entire chapter right now.

But for our text today, can we just begin reading towards the end of the chapter Isaiah 40, beginning in verse 25?

To whom then will you liken me, or shall I be equal?

Saith the Holy One.

Lift up your eyes on high and behold who hath created these things that bringeth out their host by number.

He calleth them all by names, by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power.

Say the last three words together.

Not one faileth.

One more time.

Not one faileth.

That's a great three word statement there.

And then notice the rhetorical questions again.

Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel?

My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God.

Hast thou not known?

Hast thou not heard that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary.

There is no searching of his understanding.

He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.

Even the youth shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall.

And read out loud, verse 31.

You probably already know it, maybe have it memorized together.

But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.

They shall mount up with wings as eagles.

They shall run and not be weary.

They shall walk and not faint.

This chapter is challenging us, as one commentator said, to consider how absurd it is to lose faith in the One who in relationship to earth is all powerful, all wise, dominating, with no God to challenge him, check him or rival him.

He is King of Kings, sovereign Lord of the Universe, in charge of the world, down to the smallest minute details, so that everything is in its place, nothing overlooked and nothing lost.

How could we ever question, how could we ever walk away from trusting Him?

But we do.

And that's why the theme of this passage, I believe, is in that very last verse.

It relates to this command to wait upon Lord.

Have you ever had to wait for something?

How many of you have been to a restaurant that wasn't worth waiting for right before?

Okay, we all.

We all go to restaurants.

We sign in our name and we sit and wait.

We sit and wait.

And we sit and wait.

There are a few restaurants that are worth waiting an hour for.

Most of the time you're spending way too much money at those types of restaurants.

I'm kind of the in and kind of out.

In and out.

Yes, in and out Burger.

But I'm kind of like the in and out type of person.

I don't really want to wait a long time for my meals.

Anybody else with me on that?

I'd rather go spend less money, still get decent healthy food.

At maybe a faster fast food place like Chipotle Mexican Grill or something like that, or even Subway.

Then sit and wait for an hour for a meal that comes in is really, really small.

Just recently I took my wife on a, on a trip for our 30th anniversary.

And we were commenting on this because we went to a couple really nice.

Only actually two or three really nice restauran.

Because the rest of the time we're like.

That just doesn't do it for us.

You sit and you wait to get seated and then you sit and you wait to order.

And then you sit and you wait to get the food.

And when the food came, it was like gourmet styles.

Yes, Very, very, very tasty, but way too small in my opinion.

Portions are important to me.

Anybody else with me on that?

Anyway, we've all been to restaurants where we had to wait there.

Have you ever been to the dmv?

Oh my.

We do a skit about the dmv.

And you wait, you wait, you wait.

And just, just in time to get up there to tell them you don't.

For them to tell you you don't have what you need.

And then you have to go home and get that and come back, pull a number and wait and wait and wait.

How many of you been frustrated in the dmv?

It's pretty much a known, known thing, right?

Why don't they make that a whole lot easier?

I don't understand that.

How many of you have ever been to an amusement park and you get in a line and when I was a kid, every amusement park ride was worth the wait.

When I became a parent, none of them was worth the wait.

Some of you understand that what I'm going to talk about today is that we as God's people need to recognize that it is worth waiting for the Lord.

And I want us to see three Bible principles from this chapter, Isaiah 40, that we need in our lives, every one of us individually and as families and as a church, that we would understand that God is worth waiting for.

And I want us to see the principles that will prove in our lives, according to this text, that God is worth waiting for.

Because we can say amen all day and we can say we want to trust God today.

But what is it?

What does it really mean?

It's kind of cliche ish to say, well, just trust God.

Well, just trust God.

Well, let's look at what that really looks like.

I want you to notice first of all, in this text today, we can prove that God is Worth waiting for.

When we acknowledge and admit, number one, admit the tendency of man.

We need to admit the tendency of man.

Several times in this passage of Scripture, God, through Isaiah speaks to us and speaks to them and says, who are you going to compare unto me?

He talks about the tendency of man to build up idolatry in their life.

He talks about how the things of the earth that should be growing strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace have become much more attractive.

And he talks about how they have made unto themselves idols.

Did you know that this is a tendency of all human beings?

We're all made to worship something, and our faith is not completely sight.

And so we have to walk forward in faith, worshiping a God that we've never seen, studying and knowing his word that he's given to us, and trusting him and not living in idolatry.

Notice verse 18 with me.

And when it says this, to whom then will you liken God?

Again, a rhetorical question.

You can't liken God to anyone, or what likeness will you compare unto him?

But he acknowledges that they were doing this.

The workman melts a graven image, and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold and casteth silver chains.

He that is so impoverished that he hath no oblation chooseth a tree that will not rot.

He's talking about other gods, other idols.

He seeketh unto him a cunning workman to prepare a graven image that shall not be moved.

Have you not known?

Have you not heard?

Has it not been told you from the beginning?

Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?

He's questioning again.

Just like in our life, Do.

Do we have times where we set up idols in our heart, things that are more important to us than God?

And the answer is yes, we do this.

The Bible in the New Testament says, seek you first the kingdom of God, and all the other things will be added unto you.

We may not make idols of stone or idols of wood or idols that we put up like a little Buddha in our.

In our house or like some places around the world.

But we have just as much idolatry in American Christianity, and the idols have to come down.

We need to recognize that's a tendency for all of us to take God off his rightful place and to let other things be more of a priority.

Can I say to you, cast out the idol.

Put Christ and God and his word and your faith back on the throne of your life?

If you need to do that today, you're not waiting on the Lord.

You're not trusting him.

If there's idols in your heart.

So they had a tendency towards idolatry.

Verse 25 says, to whom then?

Will you liken me again, or shall I be equal?

This was clearly a problem, and it's still clearly a problem today.

Our tendency is to place other things more important than God in our life.

And there's a lot of questions we could ask ourselves to ask today.

If God is the priority of our life, where we spend our time, where we spend our money, what's important to us?

What do we think about?

How much do we love His Word?

How much time are we spending in His Word?

How important is church to us?

And the ability to come and gather and not forsake ourselves together as the manner of some is.

But so much the more, as we see the day approaching, you see, when God is first placed on our throne, then the choices we make show that.

So I hope that that will be a challenge to us to look deeply into our heart to see if there needs to be any idols cast out of our life.

But the second tendency that we have is not only of idolatry, but is coupled in this idea of doubt and fear.

We have a tendency to doubt, and we have a tendency because of that doubt.

It leads us to fear.

Verse nine says, O Zion, that bringeth good tidings.

Get thee up into the high mountain, O Jerusalem, that bringeth good tidings.

Lift up thy voice with strength.

Lift it up.

Be not afraid.

Say those three words with me.

Be not afraid.

Did you know there's 365 times in the King James version of the Bible that it says to fear not or be not afraid, or in some way or form or fashion tells us to trust God and not to fear.

That's because all of us have that tendency in our humanity, in our finiteness.

He's infinite.

We're finite.

And so in our finite beings, we have a tendency to place things out of sorts.

And it leads us to doubt God.

It leads us to be afraid.

It leads us to fear.

Notice verse 15.

Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket and are counted as the small dust of the balance.

Behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing.

If God can control the nations and hold everything together, why are we questioning if he's in control of our own lives, why are we fearing?

Why are we doubting?

Verse 27 says, your way is not hid from the Lord.

God is in all places and in all times and in ever present with us.

And he is a God that is near us.

He hasn't forgotten you.

And our tendency in our humanity is to doubt God, God's promises.

And because of that doubt, it leads us to fear.

Maybe you look at the news and maybe you see the world affairs and maybe you are like some of the people in scripture.

Why do the heathen rage?

Why does it look like all the bad people are getting away with the bad things?

There's confusion, there's fear, there's doubt.

And the devil wants to bring even the world affairs into our lives as we watch the news to cause us to doubt in a God who's in control and he's working out all things for our good to them that love God, to them are called according to his purpose.

That God hasn't left us alone, that he, he is still with us, he's still in control.

There's no reason to fear, there's no reason to doubt.

But we've got to.

If we're going to ever properly trust God.

We have to admit our tendencies and put up guardrails and boundaries around around idolatry.

To put up guardrails and boundaries around doubting and fearing, which leads to faithlessness.

It leads to strangling us and paralyzing us.

And it's exactly what the devil wants to do.

God wants to use you, the devil wants to abuse you.

And I'm telling you, if you live in fear and you live in doubt, you're definitely going to be going to be paralyzed in your Christian walk.

And we have to acknowledge that that is present, that is there.

Don't you think?

That's why 365 times in the scriptures it tells us not to fear, not, not to, not to be afraid.

Be not afraid.

Then there's a third thing.

And then we'll move on to point number two, a third tendency that we have that comes in here and that is self dependence.

Trusting in our own way, thinking that we can do it without God.

Even the use verse 30 says even the youth shall faint and be weary.

It's specifically referring to this idea that even when you think you have the strength of the youth, that you're in your prime of life and you got, you got it all together and it seems like everything's going well even then you're going to faint and utterly fail.

You will utterly fall.

It says if you do that in your own strength.

He's literally dealing with a self dependent mindset.

This is something that is so easy to come into our lives.

We show our declaration of dependence upon God by how much we Spend time in His Word.

How much we spend time on our knees, that builds our confidence, it builds our faith, it helps us not to fear, and it helps us to know our weakness.

Micah 6:8 says, he has showed the old man what is good and what that the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, love, mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.

You see, when you think you got it all together, when you think you can handle it, when you think you can do it in your own strength, you're thinking wrong.

God resists the proud, but he gives grace unto the humble.

But let's just be honest.

We all have a tendency to think we've got it under control, or that if we maneuver things right and manipulate things right and we say the right things or go the right places and we do what we do without God, it's always going to miserably fall.

Even if you're a strong person, even if you have good charisma, even if you are a personality that kind of woos and wins people, without God, it will miserably fall.

And we all have that tendency.

Instead of trusting, truly trusting God, we have a tendency, because we don't see him, to trust our own way.

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart.

Lean not to thine own understanding, but in all your ways.

What?

Acknowledge him, and he shall direct your path.

All right.

So the first way that we can prove as individuals, as families, and as a body of believers that he is worth waiting for is number one.

We have to continually admit and advise ourselves and put boundaries up for our own sinful tendencies that are clearly instructed in this text.

But number two, I want you to notice we need to, number two, acknowledge the truth about God.

There's probably no single chapter, the Old or New Testament, that better declares the nature of our great God than Isaiah 40.

And we must acknowledge him for who and what he is.

Theme verse of our Christian camp is Philippians 3:10, which the young people could probably say with me, I won't make you do that, but we say it at every single meal, that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.

The whole point of life is to know our great God.

The whole point of salvation is to have a relationship with God.

It's not just to give us a home in heaven that's really, really nice to have.

It's not just to give us a changed life, which is really, really good to have.

But the priority is that we can have A relationship with the God of Heaven that he longs to know you, and we ought to long to know Him.

And the people that do know their God will be strong and do great exploits.

So, number two, if we're going to prove that he's worth waiting for, then we better get to know our God.

What can we find out about our God in this.

In this chapter?

First of all, he is Our Creator.

Verse 28 says he is the creator of the ends of the earth.

Verse 26, who hath created the heavens.

It references the fact that he names all the stars, puts the stars there, and he knows them all by name.

No scientist has ever even been able to account for how many stars there are.

And the universe will blow anybody's mind in our humanity.

But God knows them, created them, and knows them all by name.

He weighs the mountains in his scales.

I particularly like where he says he.

Down here, where he says verse 12, who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand.

God can measure the waters of all the world in the hollow of his hand.

That's pretty big hand, wouldn't you say?

He meted out the heavens with a span.

The span is from the thumb to the pinky.

God holds the entire universe right there.

It's pretty big.

God creating God.

We better know that he's creator.

Why is evolution such a damaging lie in our world?

It is exactly that.

It is a lie.

Why is it received?

There's so much ill logic in evolution anyway.

I was recently on a situation, I was going to a museum or something and they.

It was all I could do not to speak up, but there was a crowd of people and it probably wouldn't have been the right place, but they were telling us millions and billions of years and they were talking about evolution.

And there's so much illogic to evolution.

It takes actually more faith to believe evolution than it does to believe in a creator.

And this text is actually forming questions like, you know that I'm the creator.

And really, Romans 1 says, everybody will know that.

And they are without excuse because God is evidencing himself as Creator God.

How many of you are glad for that today?

He's creator number two.

He's controller.

Everything is under his watch and under his control.

Verse 22 says, he sits upon the circle of the earth.

A little side note there that'll maybe help us to know that the Earth is not flat, it is definitely round.

He sits on the circle of the Earth, stretches out the heavens as a curtain, spreadeth them as a tent to dwell in.

I mean, our God is in control.

He is sovereign Lord, you say.

Yeah, it doesn't make sense.

It doesn't have to make sense.

You won't understand because you're not God.

But what God is doing with all the affairs of man, he brings up kings, he takes down kings, he orders and he orders things to be done.

He allows, I would definitely not say he orders and is happy with, but he allows evil to take place.

And I'm shaking my head like you are with a lot of the evil in the world.

How can God continue to let that go?

But I sure am glad he let my evil go so that I could come to grace in God and have salvation through Jesus Christ.

So let's not be, let's not be two faced in that.

Because if he would have judged evil immediately, we'd all be dead and in hell.

But I'm so glad in his wrath he remembers mercy.

Just remember that when you look at the world, in his wrath, judgment is coming, judgment is falling.

He doesn't look kindly upon sin and he is orchestrating the affairs of men.

And he is doing that for ultimately the end times, the eschatological part that we talked about, that God's will is being done, God's way is being done.

And ultimately we're going to see him take us out of this old world to that which is real and that which is lasting and that which is eternal.

Because he's in control and he's ordering it all.

And I think it really builds our faith when we see Old Testament prophecies perfectly fulfilled in the New Testament.

And it helps us to see that God is truly in control.

Number three.

He's not only creator, he's not only controller, but he's counselor.

Verse 13 through 15. Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being his counselor, hath taught him.

Here's the idea here.

Has anyone had to teach God anything?

And the answer is no.

It's another rhetorical question.

With whom took he counsel?

Did God ever have to get counsel from someone who instructed God and taught him in the path of judgment and taught him knowledge and showed to him the way of understanding?

And the idea is nobody had to counsel God about anything.

His ways are best, his counsel is just, his statutes are right, more to be desired.

Are they than gold, sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb?

Moreover, by them as thy servant warned, and in keeping of them there is great reward.

How do you receive the counsel of God right here, the whole counsel, it's given to you right here is all we need for life and godliness and the wonderful truths of the Word of God.

How much are you making of the Word of God?

How much are you getting to know God as the Counselor?

He is the Counselor.

All right, so he's the Creator, he's the controller, he's the counselor.

Verses 1 through 11, we won't read them all, but the very first verse, already acknowledged.

Comfort ye, Comfort ye, my people.

The whole text is bringing comfort to a people that were waiting for the salvation of the Lord.

Aren't we still waiting for the ultimate end?

Well, God is bringing comfort to all of us.

Jesus Christ said, I will leave and I will give you another comforter.

We have the Holy Spirit within us.

From the moment you get saved, he's with you.

He's your comforter.

Don't believe what some other false teachers are saying, that you have to get the second blessing of the Holy Spirit.

No, you get the whole Holy Spirit.

The moment you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.

The Spirit of God comes in to be your ultimate comfort, resting in the Word of God and in the Spirit of God.

In the comfort of God, he is our comforter, no matter what you're facing, no matter how hard the difficulties, because they are all coming and they come our way, and sometimes in droves.

And they come in unique ways.

James chapter one says that.

How can we rejoice in our suffering now?

Rejoicing in our suffering is not exuberance.

It's deep faith in a God who we know is still in control.

It's not a lack of mourning, it's not a lack of tears.

It's not like just girding ourselves up when life is hard and never showing signs of any emotion.

That's not what we're talking about here.

True joy is.

We can make it through the morning because notice what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount.

Blessed are you that mourn, for you shall be comforted.

So when you know the comforter, you can mourn with joy.

You can grieve yet rejoice, folks, that without God is impossible.

But with the comforter, with the comfort of God that has come to all of our lives, we can respond that way in faith.

He is comforter, Creator, Controller, Counselor, Comforter.

Hold on.

He's also chastiser, verse 23 through 24, and verse 18 through 20.

Let's look at verse 23 and 24.

That bringeth the princes to nothing.

He maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.

Yea, they shall not be Planted, Yea, they shall not be sown.

Yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth.

And he shall also watch this blow upon them, and they shall wither.

That's all it takes from our great God.

Just.

And the whirlwind shall take them away as what?

Stubble.

Hey.

So when you look at the world's leaders and the ones that are affecting our world with all kinds of wickedness, and you wonder what God's going to do to them.

All he has to do is blow and he's going to make them a stubble.

And again, may I remind us all that God is not only the chastiser of the wicked ones, the ones that are away from him haven't received him.

The ones that are doing evil of the world, but whom the Lord loves, He chastens.

He's chastening us.

He's blowing in our lives his chastening hand.

He's making our sinful way to be of nothing and the godly way to be right.

Blessed is the man that walks in the Godly way.

Psalm 1 says, Clear distinction between that person who goes his own way and the one that goes God's way.

He is chastiser.

He's always trying to get us back into his way.

Is there something that needs to change in your life today to get you back in the way of God?

The Bible says, ponder the path of thy feet.

Let all your ways be established.

Turn not to the right hand nor to the left.

Remove your foot from evil.

I plead with you individually and as a congregation.

Remove the evil and get yourself in a plain path, the path of God.

Listen to the chastisement of the Lord in your life.

And he that confesses his sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

It is a really good thing to be confronted and to be chastised by a loving God.

I'm so glad I had a parent.

I had parents that chastened me.

They took the Board of education to the seat of learning.

That's what they did.

And I'm thankful for that.

I wasn't always thankful for that.

I didn't always understand that.

And you may not always understand it, you may not always be thankful for it.

But when you mature, you'll look and you'll say, boy, I really needed that.

And it really directed my path.

God is chastiser.

He's not going to let you get away with evil.

He's going to take down.

He's going to take down those and blow upon them and make them as stubble.

And then he's caregiver.

He hasn't forgotten you.

Verse 11 calls him the good Shepherd.

He shall feed his flock like a shepherd.

He shall gather the lambs with his arms and carry them in his bosom.

This is our God who takes us up.

The Lord is our shepherd, I shall not want.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.

Whatever you're facing, God is caring for you.

I sent a text to a friend of mine who's going through some serious deep trials right now.

Cast all your care upon him, for he careth for you.

It's hard to carry burdens if you're trying to carry them alone.

It's still hard even when you know God is caring for you.

But how much better when you rest in the all caring love of our our caregiver, Our shepherd who leads and guides us.

And then he's our confidence.

Verse 29 he giveth power to the faint.

So don't faint in the day of adversity, because if you do, your strength is fall, is small.

Gather the power, the confidence from God Almighty to make it through whatever God is leading you through.

For he is our confidence.

He brings strength to the weary.

He helps us to run and not be weary, walk and not faint.

All right, so this is our God.

Number two is to acknowledge him, to know Him.

The people that do know their God will be strong and do great exploits.

Spending so much time understanding our own tendencies will definitely lead us to a trust in that type of a God.

Acknowledge who God is.

And then third, I want you to notice we have to apply what we know.

We have to apply proper trust in God.

And this is where verse 31 comes into play.

God lays out our tendency.

We're going to struggle.

We're going to be weak.

We're going to faint.

We can't do this without the caregiving, controlling Creator comforting God.

We can't do life without Him.

Do you believe that today?

So therefore you need to wait on the Lord.

Wait on the Lord, he says, and you will renew your strength.

They will mount up with wings as eagles.

You will run, not be weary.

You will walk and not faint real quickly.

Lamentations 3:25 this is not just a text here.

This is all through Scripture.

The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.

He is our help and our shield.

And he will strengthen thine heart.

Wait, I say, on the Lord.

Micah 7:7.

Therefore I will look unto the Lord.

I will wait for the God of my salvation.

My God will hear me.

And we could literally quote verses, verses all afternoon from this idea of waiting on the Lord.

There is a sense of patience, but it's more a sense of.

Of trust.

So as we don't see everything that God is doing, we're patiently depending on Him.

And I want to just encourage you about what that waiting looks like.

Andrew Murray said this.

Let waiting be our work as it is His.

And if his waiting is nothing but goodness and graciousness, let ours be nothing but a rejoicing in that goodness and a confident expectancy of that grace.

Wait on the Lord.

What does it mean to wait on the Lord?

Because like I said earlier, it's easy to say, well, just trust in God.

That's a really easy thing to say.

But what does that simple phrase mean?

Number one?

It means daily searching the Word of God for wisdom, for thinking and living daily and moment by moment, trusting in the promises of God and being faithful to them.

Which is number two.

Daily and moment by moment being obedient to.

To the commands of Scripture.

Listen, you are not trusting God if you're not obeying something of the word of God.

We're not really properly trusting him if we're being disobedient to his commands.

Daily and moment by moment.

Number three, fighting the fight against the world, the flesh and the devil.

If we're properly waiting on the Lord, then we're willing to fight against the enemies of the cross, the enemies of our faith.

And we're going to stand up, stand up for Jesus.

And we're going to fight against the world.

We're going to fight against the flesh, we're going to fight against the devil, for those things are going to take us down.

Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.

It is daily and moment by moment, then resting in his plan and his perfect will, in spite of a lack of human perspective and understanding.

So when our perspective is skewed in our humanity and we have a tendency to not lean into the Lord, and that's the moment we need to lean even more into the Lord leaning on the everlasting arms.

And he has plenty of strength to go around.

What a fellowship, what a joy divine.

To lean on the everlasting arms of God.

And moment by moment, daily is.

Is the idea here.

This isn't just a one time.

I'm going to trust God.

No, this is an ongoing perpetual thing.

Daily understanding his word and wisdom, living it out in obedience and fighting the good fight of faith and trusting his perfect will in spite of our understanding.

And then daily and moment by moment, moment more on this tonight, enduring and anticipating our eternal home.

For we are called to wait on the coming of the Lord.

And while waiting, we are to be working.

And while working, we are to be warning be involved in the soul winning efforts of the church.

I notice you're starting up your soul winning campaign.

You should be there.

Because part of our waiting in the Lord is not sitting around.

No, it's working and warning other people and getting out and being busy for the Lord.

But the coming of the Lord is nigh.

And moment by moment, day by day, having confidence that he is going to come looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

So when we do these things, we get total confidence in God and His Word, total obedience to his, his will and his plan for our life.

Then the spiritual lens of discernment comes into our life.

We can walk in the midst of the day and be in the light.

In the darkness, the light will shine brightly out of us.

This is what he means when this is the only way to run and not be weary.

This is the only way to walk and not faint.

Running is the exceptional demands of life.

Do you have stuff in your life right now that's just over the top?

It's like not the norm.

It's stuff that's going on.

Well, God in His strength can give you the strength to run.

The walk, some said, is the ordinary daily grind.

That's the getting up and doing the same thing over and over again.

Going to work, you know, being busy about your life in Christ, raising your kids, all the different things that are just normal life.

And our walk and our running can be nurtured and strengthened as we wait on the Lord.

But it must be applied properly.

We're not waiting on the Lord just because we show up to church.

We're not waiting on the Lord just because we claim we're a Christian.

We're waiting on the Lord when we do what he calls us to do.

And we do it daily and moment by moment.

And when we fall, we.

We get back up and we faithfully pursue Him.

God is looking for that type of Christian today.

That's what you and I can be.

You as an individual, you as a family.

This congregation can see.

The strength of God can be renewed in your life so that you can run and not be Weary and you can walk and not faint.

God has not left you alone.

And he is worth waiting for.

Whatever the weight is.

God is doing his work.

So restaurant may not be worth waiting for, and definitely a ride at Disney World may not be worth waiting for, but God Almighty is.

So I call you to wait on the Lord.

If you're here today and you didn't, you came to church, but you don't know Christ as your Lord and Savior.

This Testimony of Isaiah 40 is a prophecy of the Messiah that came for all of us.

For it's a prophecy of the comforter, Jesus Christ.

It's a prophecy predicting that he is going to come in the future to make all things right, which he did.

He lived, he walked on this earth.

He suffered and bled and died.

He rose from the grave.

And the Gospel account, the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation.

It's only through Jesus Christ.

So if you're here today and you've never trusted in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, I say wait on the Lord, trust him, believe on Him.

Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

Today can be the day of salvation for you.

I plead with you, don't leave this place.

Not sure, living in doubt, not sure of your salvation.

God wants you to be sure of that.

And by faith, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.

And then my final appeal is for all of us as believers in the midst of a wicked world and desperate days and times of trial, as we go about our business of life, may we ask God to help us to run and not be weary and walk and not faint.

May we ask God to help us prove in our lives that he is worth waiting for by admitting our tendencies and setting up guards and boundaries around our tendencies, knowing where we need help and getting that help, and then trusting in our great God and knowing him better.

Creator God, comforter God, caregiving God, et cetera.

And then applying that by daily investing our lives into knowing His Word, being obedient to it, staying in his pathway, being faithful.

Because that's when God blesses with strength he will prove that he is worth waiting for.

Would you bow your heads and close your eyes as our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed?

We'll have a hymn of invitation in just a moment.

And I want to just encourage you to respond to this personally in your life and pray before the Lord and maybe confess some area of your life or just declare your dependence on him again.

Trust in him and walk in his peace.

And maybe you're facing some hard times, and maybe you just need to get on your knees and you need to just tell the Lord, I'm trusting you, you're in control.

I believe you.

But maybe there's a sin that needs to be confessed.

A way of fear in your life, a way of doubt in your life, a way of idolatry in your life, a way of sinfulness in your life.

I want to encourage you to confess and forsake that today there'll be a pastor here at the front.

If you are here without Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, today is the day of salvation for you.

I plead with you to come to Christ.

Just step from your seat and tell the pastor here at the front, one of the pastors that's here, and I want to encourage you to go and trust Christ as your Lord and Savior.

We'll send somebody with you to show you from the Bible how you can be saved.

So with heads bowed and eyes closed, let's just quietly stand to our feet.

The hymn of invitation is cleanse me 534.